Things That Make You Go Hummm.

I read the following at the National Post. Check it out there or read it here. All I can say is it is something that makes a person think. HT: ...and his ministers a flame of fire

This story can be found at http://www.nationalpost.com/opinion/columnists/story.html?id=332289

Forget global warming: Welcome to the new Ice Age

Lorne Gunter,
National Post

Published: Monday, February 25, 2008

Snow cover over North America and much of Siberia, Mongolia and China is greater than at any time since 1966.

The
U.S. National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) reported that many American
cities and towns suffered record cold temperatures in January and early
February. According to the NCDC, the average temperature in January
"was -0.3 F cooler than the 1901-2000 (20th century) average."

China
is surviving its most brutal winter in a century. Temperatures in the
normally balmy south were so low for so long that some middle-sized
cities went days and even weeks without electricity because once power
lines had toppled it was too cold or too icy to repair them.

There
have been so many snow and ice storms in Ontario and Quebec in the past
two months that the real estate market has felt the pinch as home
buyers have stayed home rather than venturing out looking for new
houses.

In just the first two weeks of February, Toronto received
70 cm of snow, smashing the record of 66.6 cm for the entire month set
back in the pre-SUV, pre-Kyoto, pre-carbon footprint days of 1950.

And
remember the Arctic Sea ice? The ice we were told so hysterically last
fall had melted to its "lowest levels on record? Never mind that those
records only date back as far as 1972 and that there is anthropological
and geological evidence of much greater melts in the past.

The ice is back.

Gilles
Langis, a senior forecaster with the Canadian Ice Service in Ottawa,
says the Arctic winter has been so severe the ice has not only
recovered, it is actually 10 to 20 cm thicker in many places than at
this time last year.

OK, so one winter does not a climate make.
It would be premature to claim an Ice Age is looming just because we
have had one of our most brutal winters in decades.

But if
environmentalists and environment reporters can run around shrieking
about the manmade destruction of the natural order every time a robin
shows up on Georgian Bay two weeks early, then it is at least fair game
to use this winter's weather stories to wonder whether the alarmist are
being a tad premature.

And it's not just anecdotal evidence that is piling up against the climate-change dogma.

According
to Robert Toggweiler of the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory at
Princeton University and Joellen Russell, assistant professor of
biogeochemical dynamics at the University of Arizona -- two prominent
climate modellers -- the computer models that show polar ice-melt
cooling the oceans, stopping the circulation of warm equatorial water
to northern latitudes and triggering another Ice Age (a la the movie
The Day After Tomorrow) are all wrong.

"We missed what was right
in front of our eyes," says Prof. Russell. It's not ice melt but rather
wind circulation that drives ocean currents northward from the tropics.
Climate models until now have not properly accounted for the wind's
effects on ocean circulation, so researchers have compensated by
over-emphasizing the role of manmade warming on polar ice melt.

But
when Profs. Toggweiler and Russell rejigged their model to include the
40-year cycle of winds away from the equator (then back towards it
again), the role of ocean currents bringing warm southern waters to the
north was obvious in the current Arctic warming.

Last month, Oleg
Sorokhtin, a fellow of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences,
shrugged off manmade climate change as "a drop in the bucket." Showing
that solar activity has entered an inactive phase, Prof. Sorokhtin
advised people to "stock up on fur coats."

He is not alone.
Kenneth Tapping of our own National Research Council, who oversees a
giant radio telescope focused on the sun, is convinced we are in for a
long period of severely cold weather if sunspot activity does not pick
up soon.

The last time the sun was this inactive, Earth suffered
the Little Ice Age that lasted about five centuries and ended in 1850.
Crops failed through killer frosts and drought. Famine, plague and war
were widespread. Harbours froze, so did rivers, and trade ceased.

It's
way too early to claim the same is about to happen again, but then it's
way too early for the hysteria of the global warmers, too.

lgunter@shaw.ca

Turk Encouraged Me :)

Over at Frank Turk's blog he posted this and it encouraged me to look for the Iron Man movie trailer. Well here it is.

German Shepherd Dog

What Breed of Dog Are You?

My Result: German Shepherd

No bones, about it, you're a loyal, hard-working German Shepherd. Dedicated and always low-maintenance, people flock to you — they know they can count on you to get any job done, and done well. That focus and attention to detail spans from your personal to your professional life, too. Although you can be a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to the projects you tackle, you still manage to keep cool and laid-back in social situations. You get a kick out of the little things and thrive when you're constantly busy and on-the-go. Easygoing and unpretentious, you don't need constant pampering and reassurance. A genuine, carefree pup, you're a true-blue friend, employee, and partner. Woof!

What are you?
http://web.tickle.com/jumpto?test=dogogt&c=50652

Looking Forward Or Back

Commentaries can be helpful, but at other times they only seem to raise questions that make things seem less clear (not to mention they can tend toward getting into ruts of interpretation and not notice other things that are there simply because the previous commentators did not focus on them as Dan Phillips was lamenting over a Pyromaniacs.)

My general approach to a text I will be preaching on is to first of all deal with the text, its immediate context and it overall context in the scriptures. I read it, pray about it, look at the original languages and the like repeatedly. Then I turn to commentaries. The problem is sometimes they don't answer a question that I have of the text on which I want additional input from godly men through their commentaries. Other times, they point out things that I had not thought of.

This coming Sunday evening I will be preaching on 1 John 2:7-8 (I may go further but from my study there is enough there for one sermon):

7 Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word that you have heard. 8 At the same time, it is a new commandment that I am writing to you, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.

1 John 2:7-8 (ESV)

As with many people who have read this book of the Bible and the gospel according to John over many times in my life, my first thought when I read this is that it is referring to Jesus teaching in John 13 in his Upper Room discourse:

31 When he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him. 32 If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and glorify him at once. 33 Little children, yet a little while I am with you. You will seek me, and just as I said to the Jews, so now I also say to you, ‘Where I am going you cannot come.’ 34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

John 13:31-35 (ESV)

Thus, the first thing that comes to mind is the new commandment is the old commandment to love on another. This is supported by the fact that the next thing John wrote about in his first letter was a call to mutual love between believers. Most of us make that assumption without actually considering it.

However, reading the commentaries I found that a few of them (Matthew Henry, Robert S. Candlish and Albert Barnes) who ask the question if he is looking forward to the command of love that Christ gave which John would deal with next, or whether John was looking back at what he has just wrote and was affirming that none of this was new, but was know by those he was writing to from the beginning when they received Christ.

I had never thought of even asking that question. The points for this looking back make sense. John writes and a clear style and it would seem more likely that he was dealing with something he had already wrote rather that something he was about to speak of, especially since he does not mention love at all until the following verses. The reference to the beginning (see 1 John 1:1 and John 1:1ff) and the mention of the true light already shining all fall into the argument why this is looking back. The point of looking back is that what John had just written about could have been under attack by the false teachers who left the church as a 'new' or 'novel' teaching, and because of it strong call to a life transformed by grace.

On the other hand looking forward fits nicely with John 13 and the coming call to love.

So what do those who read this blog think? Is John looking back or forward with these verses and why?

Are You Sure You Know Jesus? -- 1 John 2:3-6

In a world where many people who call themselves Christians live lives that look no different from those who do not, it raises the question of who is it who really knows Jesus? Who is it that really knows God? This sermon from our evening service of February 3rd, 2008 looks at how that question was answered in 1 John 2:3-6

Are You Sure You Know Jesus? -- 1 John 2:3-6

Stopping Time -- Sort Of

Good Question

While I was stuck in my sermon preparation I took a look at a blog I very much enjoy here. He quoted a good question from Mark Dever (the pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church) found in the latest 9Marks report card. The question was a good one, so I will reproduce it here as well.

“I want you to try a thought exercise. Suppose a business school class on non-profit organizations assigned its students the task of building a successful church. And assume all the students are non-Christians. Could they succeed?

Sure they could! With the right poll-tested methods, just about anyone can dreaw a crowd. If ambience sells coffee, why not use it to sell Jesus? The church might even win a “Most Innovative!” award.

Yet think about this: what does it say about God if we need to market his glory and gospel with the same tools we use to sell toothpaste and laundry detergent? Is he really that desperate?

God is so much more glorious. He has declared a mighty gospel and then backed up his words by changing a group of people. There’s the church’s appeal: The wisdom of God. The Might of God. The love of God. On display in the lives of a changed people for all the world to see!

Is your church relying on natural appeal or supernatural? Whose glory does it display?”

From A Formless Void God Creates A Very Good Creation

And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. 3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day. 6 And God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” 7 And God made the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse. And it was so. 8 And God called the expanse Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day. 9 And God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so. 10 God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good. 11 And God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth.” And it was so. 12 The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 13 And there was evening and there was morning, the third day. 14 And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years, 15 and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth.” And it was so. 16 And God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. 17 And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, 18 to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day. 20 And God said, “Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens.” 21 So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 22 And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” 23 And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day. 24 And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds—livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so. 25 And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” 29 And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. 30 And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. 31 And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

Gen 1:2-31 (ESV)

I realized it has been a while since I posted on my daily Bible reading. Part of that was getting busy with other things, but another part was working my way through the rest of Chapter 1 of Genesis. As I considered what the Bible says here, I realized more and more how completely unacceptable this is to the vast majority of people today. They mock anyone who would hold to a six day creation because they say, "It took millions of years for the earth to evolve, and we have the fossil evidence to prove it." I must admit I have not read extensively in this area, especially not recently, however, it strikes me that the fossil evidence they present is far from being the iron tight evidence that many people present it as. There are others who are much more capable of dealing with those areas than I am.

Yet, even without the so called evidence, I think the objection actually goes deeper. Because what the creation account teaches first of all is that God made everything. There is not one thing that exists in the whole of the creation that was not created by him. That means that everything, including each of us, belongs to God. Just as when you make something, it is yours. That is a thought that the mind that rejects God does not want to hear, because that means they are accountable to God. It means that they cannot simply do whatever they want regardless of what God says and expect to get away with it forever. For God as the one who created everything, is himself outside of the bounds of this universe. He is not bound by time or space, and thus, there is no escape from him by us as we are bound by this universe.

Having said that, there is for me as a believer in Jesus Christ, a wonderful truth found here as well. For, out of the formless void, God created this universe. As each day passed in the creation process, as each step was taken in that process, God made the the pronouncement that what he had created was good. Then on the final day of creation, upon creating humankind in the image and likeness of God, we read, "God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good." From a formless void to a good creation. A creation that even now, while it is subject to frustration (Romans 8:20), reflects that goodness that was created with.

Since God did that, how much more can he take the lives of people that have been deformed by sin, lives that are void of hope whether the person realizes it or not, and bring form and fullness to them in his Son Jesus Christ.

We don't live in that very good creation any longer. It has been marred by our sin, by our disobedience, by our rebellion against God. That same rebellion that wants to reject that he is the one who created us. Yet, it still testifies to God. It still points out that all is not as it should be, and in doing that it cries out for someone to fix what is wrong. The only one who can fix what is really wrong, is Jesus Christ. Through him, we find elsewhere in the Bible, all things were made, and he can and will being creation again to where all things will be very good.

Purchased Plans For DIY Trailer

One of the things I like to do it work with my hands. If you have read this blog for a while you know that means I do most of the repair work on our vehicles, and help building and repairing things around the house. I think some of the appeal for me is that working in ministry the results of ones work are largely intangible. Yes, I produce two sermons (sometimes more) a week, that is a measure of work. Changes in people, however, which is what those sermons seek to bring as they bring forth the word of God, is something that is not really measurable, nor is it a task where you can ever say you have finished. When you fix the brakes on the car, once they are back together and working properly, you can take satisfaction in a job well done.

With all that in mind, this past Friday I purchased some plans to build my own trailer off of e-bay. This person had both plans for small tear-drop trailers and for larger ones that I would not really call tear-drop trailers, but are probably based on them. I purchased the plans for the larger one, although I may purchase them for the smaller one later. Once they arrive, my hope is to make that my relaxation project. If all goes well, in several months I will have a new trailer that can also serve as Justin's play-house in the back yard.

If the e-bay ad can be trusted it will weigh in well under 1000 pounds, so my wife could even pull it with here Mazda and I could pull it with my Sunrunner. The advantage of that is cheaper gas costs while traveling. I will see how it turns out.

I don't know what I will do with it when it is finished. Definitely camp a few times, but I still prefer my tent trailer for camping because I like the canvas. Who knows, maybe I will sell it and build another.

Good Modern Proverb

This is something to make a person think.

Climate Change: The Deniers

I stumbled upon this while researching some things for my Sunday evening sermon. No I am not going to preach on climate change for or against. I was simply searching for the use of the word deniers. However, I am going to read through this collection of articles to see what I can see. It is nice to see a publication like the National Post putting together such a series of articles.

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It All Starts Here

In the beginning, God created
the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and
darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was
hovering over the face of the waters. Genesis 1:1-2 (ESV)

This
year I started to read through the Bible from beginning to end. This is
not something new to me, but for the last year or so, I have focused on
reading through the gospels and the letters of Paul. I originally had put a two year Bible reading plan together in E-sword and had been following that, but after a week or so, I realized I was reading to keep up with the plan, rather than seeking to let the Scriptures sink in and seeking to understand and apply them. So, I decided to start over again. I still use the E-sword plan, but I only plan to select it being read when I want to move ahead. That is one thing I like about it. I will allow me to keep looking at the same section of scripture until I select that it is read.

Having said that, what I have been looking at it Genesis 1. I have read through it, and contemplated it, but I still don't think it has sunk in the way it should, so I will keep looking at it.

What I have been particularly considering over the last day or so is the first several verses. The first thing that stands out, especially in a time when random chance in evolution is the dominant and accepted explanation of the origin of all things, is that in the beginning was God. That is who it all starts with. There was a time, if that word has any meaning at that point, where all that was, was God.

That leads to what I keep trying to wrap my head around is the description of what was, or better, wasn't there. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, but before he did so it was "without form and void." I keep trying to think what that would be like. Try as I might I cannot because I keep giving form to what was without form. Trying to consider what nothing is like is like trying to think of nothing. If you actively do it, you keep coming up with something. In the beginning it was God and nothing else.

Then God did something amazing. He made everything. He created the whole universe. It was not--then God created it. That is more amazing than anything I can imagine.

I would hazard a guess that at least part of the problem many people have with this is that it shows that God is completely 'other' than the universe around us. We live in this creation. Our whole frame of reference is this creation. It is through our created senses that we observe and interact with the creation around us. Yet, none of this, not one bit of it, existed before God created it. That means the frame of reference for God is completely outside of ours. It means that God is God not in the small way people often think of God, but in a way far bigger, far different, far more powerful than we usually ever consider.

If nothing else this should bring a sense of awe in who God is. A sense of his overarching status above all things. He is the one who made all things, who was before all things, and who is outside of all things.

The other thing this brings to mind is this. Since God created all things, that means they are all his. His right to command and do whatever he desires is founded in his position as the creator of all things. That is something it seems we do not like to consider. We prefer to be considered free agents, but this reminds us of the truth of what Paul said in Acts 17, "In him we live and move and have our being."

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Dutch Cowboys--Who Would Have Thought

Major Sci-Fi Geek

I actually thought I would do better, but there were at least a couple that I did not recognize at all and had to guess at.

	I received 78 credits on The Sci Fi Sounds Quiz How much of a Sci-Fi geek are you?
Take the Sci-Fi Movie Quiz Canon S5

I Found This Interesting

I had not thought about this before, but was referred to this link by an acquaintance of mine. It does a good job of explaining the monetary system that the world currently functions under, and for that it is quite useful. I realize it takes a particular view on this system and proposes some alternatives, but I also question some of the conclusions and alternatives proposed. Having said that, overall I see the danger of this sort of monetary system and understand how it takes the power out of the hands of the elected government and puts it into the hands of bankers. Is this some great conspiracy? It could be, but I sort of doubt it. More likely it is something that has allowed people to live the way they would like to live, and thus while not understood it is accepted. Take the time to watch it (47 minutes) so you can understand how our monetary system actually works and where money comes from.

Justin Wanted This Posted

On The Start Of a New Year

Once again it is a new year, and, as has become usual for me since I serve in a congregation that has both new year's eve and new year's day services, I simply went to bed and slept through the change of year. However, one of the things that I found to be a real answer to prayer for me, was that I actually slept well. I slept deeply and long, and feel better rested than I have in almost two weeks.

The reason I had not been sleeping well was that I had hurt my back shoveling snow on December 17th. Since then getting a good sleep has been difficult. Even pain killers and muscle relaxants did not give me the sort of sleep I had last night. Even though my back is not pain free, it no longer aches while I am not moving. That is something I have been praying for, and I thank God for it. I pray that he will heal my back all the way so that I can get my snowblower fixed and start to do things around the house again, but I am thankful that things seem to be getting better at last.

To everyone reading this, have a blessed new year, and may God by his Spirit and his Word, bring you to see him more clearly and love him more every day.

Today I started reading through the Bible. I am not planning on doing it in any quick manner. I have done the read through the Bible in a year plans, and they have value, but sometimes I find they simply cover too much for me to read it they way I would like. Over the past year or so I have been using a read through the gospels and letters of Paul. That has been very beneficial, but now I want to return to reading not just the New Testament but the Older one as well. How long this will take me I don't know. I expect at least a couple of years as I am going to take my time so I can consider what God is saying in the Bible more carefully.

Now I need to get going for our new year's day service.

Simply Amazing

I find it amazing how God created such fantastic creatures to populate this world. Check out this segment on how fast a falcon can dive. I was amazed at the top speed recorded for this falcon.

What Kind Of American Accent Do I Have?

This is really a trick question, since I am Canadian.

What American accent do you have? Your Result: North Central "North Central" is what professional linguists call the Minnesota accent. If you saw "Fargo" you probably didn't think the characters sounded very out of the ordinary. Outsiders probably mistake you for a Canadian a lot.
The West
The Midland
Boston
The Inland North
Philadelphia
The South
The Northeast
What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

Hallelujah Chorus for the Hearing Impaired

I caught this over at Doxoblogy and thought it was worth posting here.



Although I enjoy and the Hallelujah Chorus, it is not my favorite piece from Handel's Messiah. My favorite is And The Glory Of The Lord.